Welcome to the website of Kiwi Air, New Zealands easiest way to fly!
Kiwi-Air is a school / club consisting of enthusiastic paragliding and paramotoring pilots and instructors who use a winch and paramotors to get airborne. We offer anybody the opportunity to fly or to learn to fly with us, so; if you are interested in getting your feet off the ground in New Zealand, please don't hesitate to contact us!
Kiwi-Air is run by Michel & Aniko Verhagen. We fly and teach at various locations in and around the Eastern Bay of Plenty and further afield in Oludeniz, Turkey for SIVs and the European Alps and Italian Dolomites for XC training and guiding.
We also organize & teach SIVs (in Oludeniz, Turkey and various other places in Europe) and XC guiding in the European Alps and the Italian Dolomites.
Besides paragliding in all its forms, both Michel and Aniko are also very enthusiastic kite-boarders, mountain climbers, canyoners, white-water kayakers, pack rafters and catamaran sailors. Contact us for kite-board training & gear and even for guided back-country packraft expeditions.
Michel has been flying since 2002 and has competed in various international cross country and aerobatic competitions. He moved from the Netherlands to New Zealand in 2006 and imported a new stationary paragliding winch from the Netherlands in 2009. Michel has been a paragliding & tow instructor since 2004 and has been using a winch to get his feet of the ground since the very first day he started flying (no mountains in the Netherlands!). He started paramotoring in 2007 and became a paramotor instructor in 2013.
Aniko has been flying since 2004 and has been exploring the Himalayas since 2006. She has been mostly concentrating on cross-country flying but she sure enjoys aerobatics and some paramotoring as well. Aniko moved to New Zealand in 2009 and is originally from Hungary. She became a paragliding instructor in 2019.
The video below shows our winch, the Kiwi-Airlift, which gives free flying pilots an easy and convenient way to experience the joy of flying!
The video below shows what paramotoring in New Zealand is all about: